Sauer

Petitioner H. K. Sauer seeks a writ of mandate to reverse the superior court’s orders imposing monetary sanctions and excluding all evidence of economic loss in Sauer’s action against real party in interest Oak Industries, Inc. (Oak), for wrongful termination of employment. We issued an alternative writ of mandate directing Oak to show cause why the relief prayed for should not be granted. Upon return and replication, oral arguments were heard. For the reasons set forth below, we deny the writ.

Issues

Sauer challenges the propriety of three orders. The first is the proposed order of Referee Higgs granting part of Oak’s motion to compel discovery and recommending $8,000 in monetary sanctions and costs against Sauer for willful failure to follow the rules of discovery. The second is Judge Jones’s order adopting Referee Higgs’s recommendations. The third, and perhaps most significant, is Judge Woodworth’s order granting Oak’s motion in limine to exclude all evidence of economic loss as a sanction for Sauer’s willful noncompliance with court-ordered discovery.

Sauer contends the monetary sanctions imposed by Referee Higgs were improper as being without statutory basis and…

I concur in the result insofar as it upholds the sanctions imposed pursuant to Referee Higgs’s findings.

I dissent and would reverse the preclusion sanction on the special facts of this case where even the few documents originally not timely produced have been lodged pretrial for more than a year with the trial and appellate courts and accessible for all discovery purposes to Oak Industries, Inc. (OAK), for *232 that period. Although available, these so-called “critical” records have languished unexamined by Oak’s attorneys, the trial court or the majority of this appellate panel, all of whom choose to rely on a conclusive presumption of prejudice for which there is no legal justification where the sought-after materials are available for examination and meaningful use at trial.

My disagreement with the majority is multibased. (1) On the facts of this case, I find the evidence-preclusion sanction to be punitive only, because a short delay of trial initially, and even now, will place Oak in the same trial preparation position it would have been had the late-produced documents been received earlier. (2) Further, I would follow case-precedent and hold the trial court abused its…

Latham & Watkins, David F. Faustman and Kristine L. Wilkes for Real Party in Interest.

OPINION

KREMER, P.J.

Petitioner H.K. Sauer seeks a writ of mandate to reverse the superior court's orders imposing monetary sanctions and excluding all evidence of economic loss in Sauer's action against real party in interest Oak Industries, Inc. (Oak), for wrongful termination of employment. We issued an alternative writ of mandate directing Oak to show cause why the relief prayed for should not be granted. Upon return and replication, oral arguments were heard. For the reasons set forth below, we deny the writ.

Sauer challenges the propriety of three orders. The first is the proposed order of Referee Higgs granting part of Oak's motion to compel discovery and recommending $8,000 in monetary sanctions and costs against Sauer for willful failure to follow the rules of discovery. The second is Judge Jones's order adopting Referee Higgs's recommendations. The third, and perhaps most significant, is Judge Woodworth's order granting Oak's motion in limine to exclude all evidence of economic loss as a sanction for Sauer's willful noncompliance with court-ordered discovery.

Sauer contends the…